First
flavors: "We grew up next to an orange field. We would get lost in the
hills with our knives and fireworks and bicycles and go pick oranges
off the trees. It was something we could really appreciate, sweating in
the sun and getting all dirty."

Early
teachers: "I used to watch Food Network and try to copy what they did.
'Great Chefs' was a really old classic that I watched all the time. It
was just one guy in a quiet kitchen. You could hear a mouse running on
the floor behind him. They were all such serious, classical chefs."

Realizing
he would be a chef: "As soon as I started cooking at Red Lobster (in
high school). It was an intense job, and I made OK money. I went to a
computer-technology-focused high school. When I was a junior in high
school, we were learning graphic design, and I started drawing pictures
of food."

Changing tastes:
"My mom ran a day-care for most of my life, so we ate macaroni and
cheese and Hamburger Helper. My eyes were really opened when I came out
here (to New Orleans). The first time chef Lee (Richardson, former chef
de cuisine) at Restaurant August gave me a lobster, I'd had it maybe
two or three times in my whole life. But to see a whole one on a plate
and have him let me eat it was pretty neat."

A
night to remember: "Chef (John Besh) will take us on trips to open our
eyes. I think the first outrageously expensive fine dining we went to
in New York was Per Se. That meal was memorable not because of how
complex the food was, but because of how precise it was, how small it
was, but still done properly. We had 18 courses, and every course came
out hot and seasoned well. That's the toughest part."

A
job well done: "I like making malfatti, a Creole cream cheese dumpling.
It's made a lot like gnocchi, but instead of potato you use Creole
cream cheese. How they can come out looking like little marshmallows
every single time is really exciting. Knowing that, when I do a batch
of those, 35 people are going to get these perfect little dumplings is
cool."

Carrying on La
Provence's legacy: "(Thirty-year veteran) Ms. Joyce is still there
guarding the history of it. I hear about it all day, every day. She
holds nothing back. The thing we always remember is that she cares and
she has for so long. You can see the history with her."